Life and work

Emilio Caraffa was born in Catamarca

Catamarca

Catamarca may refer to:*San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca, Argentina*Catamarca Province, Argentina...

, Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, in 1862. His family relocated to Rosario

Rosario

Rosario is the largest city in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the western shore of the Paraná River and has 1,159,004 residents as of the ....

, where he attended the local National College (a system of public college preparatory schools), and learned to draw and sketch. He received lessons in painting in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

 from 1883 to 1884, an experience which earned him a scholarship from the Minister of Justice and Culture, Eduardo Wilde

Eduardo Wilde

Eduardo Wilde was an Argentine physician, politician, and writer, and among the most prominent intellectual figures of the modernizing Generation of '80 in Argentina.-Life and times:...

. Caraffa attended art academies in Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

 and Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, as well as in Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

's Royal Fine Arts Academy of San Fernando

Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando

The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando , located on the Calle de Alcalá in the heart of Madrid, currently functions as a museum and gallery....

, where he studied under Francisco Pradilla and was inducted into the Order of Charles III, in 1887. Returning to Argentina in 1890, Caraffa relocated to Córdoba

Córdoba, Argentina

Córdoba is a city located near the geographical center of Argentina, in the foothills of the Sierras Chicas on the Suquía River, about northwest of Buenos Aires. It is the capital of Córdoba Province. Córdoba is the second-largest city in Argentina after the federal capital Buenos Aires, with...

, where in 1896, he received authorization from the progressive Governor of Córdoba Province

Córdoba Province (Argentina)

Córdoba is a province of Argentina, located in the center of the country. Neighboring provinces are : Santiago del Estero, Santa Fe, Buenos Aires, La Pampa, San Luis, La Rioja and Catamarca...

, José Figueroa Alcorta

José Figueroa Alcorta

José Figueroa Alcorta was President of Argentina from 12 March 1906 to 12 October 1910.Figueroa Alcorta was born in Córdoba as the son of José Figueroa and Teodosia Alcorta. He was elected a National Representative for Córdoba before becoming Provincial Governor in 1895. In 1898 he returned to the...

, to establish the Provincial Fine Arts Academy. Caraffa was appointed a professor at the Córdoba National University in 1900.
His earlier works were largely landscape art

Landscape art

Landscape art is a term that covers the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, and especially art where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition. In other works landscape backgrounds for figures can still...

, a popular genre locally, at the time; after 1900, however, his art tended towards post-impressionism - a largely overlooked genre among Argentine art patrons which Caraffa, who enjoyed strong official support, arguably helped popularize in Argentina. Among his best-known early works from this period in his career was Head of a Jewish Man, which he exhibited at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition

Louisiana Purchase Exposition

The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the Saint Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States in 1904.- Background :...

 in St. Louis, earning a silver medal. Remaining active in the Córdoba cultural sphere, he obtained funding for the province's first official art museum in 1911, and the institution opened in 1916.

Caraffa was commissioned to lead the decoration of the ceilings of the Córdoba Cathedral, a work completed in 1914. Over time, he developed a painting style of a markedly romanticist bent, and created numerous landscapes, portraits and works of historic and religious art for government bureaus and churches. The prolific painter died suddenly in his atelier in the scenic town of La Cumbre

La Cumbre, Córdoba

La Cumbre is a small town in the province of Córdoba, Argentina, in a valley known as the "Valle de Punilla". It has a population of 7800 inhabitants.-History:...

, in 1939.

Eleven years after his death, the provincial museum he helped establish was renamed the Emilio Caraffa Provincial Fine Arts Museum

Caraffa Fine Arts Museum

The Emilio Caraffa Provincial Fine Arts Museum is an art museum in Córdoba, Argentina.-Overview:The institution was established as the Provincial Fine Arts Museum by the Province of Córdoba, which commissioned German Argentine architect Juan Kronfuss for its design, in 1915...

. His works, besides those gracing private homes, churches and government offices, can be found in numeorus Argentine museums, among them the Juan B. Castagnino Fine Arts Museum

Juan B. Castagnino Fine Arts Museum

The Juan B. Castagnino Fine Arts Museum is an art museum in the city of Rosario, , considered the most important of the interior of the country and the second in national terms. It is administered by the municipal government...

 (Rosario) and the National Fine Arts Museum

Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Buenos Aires)

The National Museum of Fine Arts is an Argentine art museum in Buenos Aires, located in the Recoleta section of the city. The MNBA inaugurated a branch in Neuquén in 2004.-History:...

(Buenos Aires).